


MULTITASKER

by spicyshimmy



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, M/M, Slash, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-25
Updated: 2012-06-25
Packaged: 2017-11-08 12:28:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/443193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicyshimmy/pseuds/spicyshimmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some teen!Shepard and teen!Kaidan alternate universe bed cuddles. Because the EC DLC is coming out in two days and there's only one way to deal with that. Shepard always comes over Sunday afternoons and Kaidan works himself too hard the rest of the week. Naturally, they end up in bed together. <i>Shepard hadn’t, like, actually shown up to make out with Kaidan again. Maybe, in the back of his mind, he was thinking about it—but he was also thinking about how he wasn’t that guy, and how Kaidan was somebody completely different, and how Joker wouldn’t let them hear the end of it if he found out, at least until Shepard went over to his house and poured a full Red Bull in his lap and on his head.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	MULTITASKER

**Author's Note:**

> There will probably be more of this.

Shepard hadn’t, like, _actually_ shown up to make out with Kaidan again. Maybe, in the back of his mind, he was thinking about it—but he was also thinking about how he wasn’t that guy, and how Kaidan was somebody completely different, and how Joker wouldn’t let them hear the end of it if he found out, at least until Shepard went over to his house and poured a full Red Bull in his lap and on his head.

It wouldn’t hurt. It’d just be sticky.

So Shepard had come over because it was Sunday afternoon and that was what Shepard did on Sunday afternoons. And, if he happened to see some of Kaidan’s notes on Macbeth or whatever they were reading in English that week spread across Kaidan’s desk, he could check those out at the same time.

Anderson always told him, _You’re a multi-tasker, kid_ , while Shepard did the dishes and kept Grunt from busting the halfway house to hell and back—because he was too big and too bored to do anything _other_ than break stuff. Sometimes, on the bad days, Shepard helped him. But mostly, he just helped out around the place.

Then, hands smelling like dish detergent, he headed over to Kaidan’s house for the rest of the day.

Kaidan was done with his homework already, of course, and Shepard flipped the pencil around his fingers more than he actually filled in the blanks in his geometry proofs. Squares and circles and triangles; all these shapes that didn’t really fit. Shepard got that part of the so-called equation, but in real life, the answers never came that easy.

Meanwhile, Kaidan was practically biting through his bottom lip trying not to just say the answers. ‘You know they’re not expecting me to turn this thing in on time anyway,’ Shepard said, with a jerk of his shoulder to show he didn’t care, and Kaidan sighed.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Yeah, okay. You wanna watch something?’

The only thing they could ever really agree on was Star Wars, obviously, even if they’d seen _A New Hope_ too many times already. Kaidan turned on the TV and put one elbow under his head, barely paying attention, and Shepard fixed his eyes on the sun on the desert planet, the way it _looked_ hot like Vancouver never even _was_.

Otherwise, he was gonna think about Kaidan next to him. Kaidan on the bed; Shepard on the bed. The way Kaidan had been hard against his ass the other day but even better than that was the feeling of his arm around Shepard’s waist, his lips on the back of Shepard’s neck, his stomach swelling into Shepard’s hips when he breathed.

Apparently they weren’t planning on talking about that. Shepard shrugged again and Kaidan shifted, breathing evenly, with a hitch that sounded like a yawn.

Shepard couldn’t help it. He looked away from Star Wars probably for the first time in his life to look down at Kaidan instead.

He had these dark lashes, this bottom lip Shepard wanted to bite for him—and what looked like a pillow crease on his cheek. Shepard wanted to touch that most of all and he rolled his eyes at himself, then froze, expecting Kaidan to open his.

He didn’t.

Shepard still didn’t feel relieved.

He felt like one of those rubber-band balls, all knotted up with most of the rubber so old it’d snap if only it could. Shepard bit his own bottom lip and it didn’t feel as good as imagining what Kaidan’s was like, asking himself if he should’ve gone for it—just kissed him—instead of doing the other thing—not kissing him at all.

‘Hey,’ Shepard said finally. He didn’t know how long it’d been because it felt like forever, only C3P0 and R2-D2 were still wandering the desert, so it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes. ‘ _Hey_. I’ll go if you’re tired, okay?’

Kaidan sucked it all in, a sudden rush of air, Shepard’s voice catching him off guard instead of something better—something like Shepard’s hand on his shoulder or Shepard’s thumb on his throat. ‘Huh?’ Kaidan said, and then, too quickly, ‘I’m awake. I’m awake.’

‘No you’re not.’ Shepard reached for his stuff while Kaidan pulled off his glasses, rubbing one eye with the same hand.

‘Yeah, I was. C3P0 isn’t even—they’re still on Tatooine, Shepard. I’m awake, seriously,’ Kaidan added, and started to move.

Off the bed or something. Thinking he had to prove to Shepard what he proved to everybody else every day: that he did more in twenty-four hours than anyone did the whole week. And that included Shepard, who was—and Anderson was never wrong about these things—a multitasker.

If Shepard was bad, then Kaidan was even worse.

‘Nah,’ Shepard said. ‘You were sleeping. I can tell because you weren’t sucking your stomach in.’

The flush that spread over Kaidan’s cheeks was worth it, although it tied that knot even tighter, refusing to let up for even a second. Shepard felt like doubling over, like he’d just been running the whole way to Kaidan’s house.

Sometimes, he wanted to get there so bad, he _did_ run the whole way. And then he hung out in the garden for a while so he wouldn’t be early, making sure he kept out of sight of the windows, behind a big tree with an old swing on it.

‘Shut up,’ Kaidan said, knuckling Shepard in the side. It was a half-hearted punch that meant Kaidan didn’t really want to hit him, just roll over and cover most of his face with the pillow already underneath his head, only then he didn’t pull his hand back. And Shepard could feel his fingers closing around a handful of cotton t-shirt. Before he could even enjoy the second he fell, he was down on the bed, knees bumping into Kaidan’s.

‘Hey,’ Shepard repeated. It was different this time. One of Kaidan’s arms was braced underneath him and the other one was bent, hand pushing up Shepard’s chest toward his throat and then, somehow, brushing his knuckles over Shepard’s chin.

It was gonna happen. Shit, it was already happening. Kaidan’s lips parted and his whole body arched toward Shepard’s like _Shepard_ was the one pulling on those rubber bands. But he wasn’t.

It’d never been him.

‘Hey,’ Kaidan replied, and Shepard watched him close his eyes, then tugged his bottom lip between his teeth like he always wanted. He felt their stomachs bump, sharing the same damn breath. And he watched Kaidan’s long, dark lashes, Shepard’s eyes open the whole time.

Shapes, equations—multitasking.  


End file.
